


damn, he's got it bad

by orphan_account



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Enstars Summer Secret Santa 2k18, Hanahaki Disease, Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-06-22 18:29:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15588069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: keito catches the hanahaki disease and summer is too hot this time around





	damn, he's got it bad

**Author's Note:**

> i haven't written in five million years so i'm sorry for this sorry excuse of 'angst' and i'm sorry if there are any mistakes i'm a failure. anyway, happy summer.

Love? Keito denies it.

Even as he wakes up and crimson petals pepper his pillow like freckles. They are wet. Moist with saliva.

He blinks and a familiar, scratchy sensation hits the back of his throat. He coughs and more petals fall past his lips. The first thought that passes his mind is how they’re the same colour as _that person’s_ eyes.

Accompanied by the summer heat that is far too cruel this time around, Keito wants nothing more than to go back to sleep.

Instead, he sighs, sits up and throws his legs over the edge of the bed. The heels of his palms are pressed against his eyes as his elbows rest above his knees.

**\---**

  


_That person_ is dazzling on stage. The way their fingers wrap around the microphone, charcoal hair sticking to their forehead, mouth curled into an excited grin. Their voice spills past their throat like honey overflowing from a spoon, they dance like wildflowers in the wind and their gaze is fire.

When the performance is over, sweat trickles down the side of their face, past their cheeks and throat and Keito, watching with awestruck eyes, wants to kiss every single bead of sweat away.

But then that person curls their arm around a unit member’s waist, pulling him close to their side and with a radiant smile, nuzzles his cheek. The unit member frowns, forcefully peeling himself away from them with a look of disgust. _That person_ pouts, canine teeth just barely poking out from their top lip, very evidently missing the warmth by their side.

Keito, backstage and observant, bites back the urge to cough.

**\---**

  


_That person_ cushions Keito’s name on their tongue oh-so-gently, he can almost hear the waves lightly crashing against the shore in the languid push and pull of their voice. A black parasol provides them with shade from the summer sun and despite wearing sunglasses, Keito can still see the deep red of their eyes. Their free hand is brought up into a wave, the skin of their arms seemingly moist with a fresh layer of sunscreen.

“What are you doing here?” Keito asks. “It’s not like you to go on walks.”

“A man isn’t allowed to enjoy an afternoon stroll on such a lovely day like this?” That person tips his head to the side, lips set into an amused smile.

Keito raises an eyebrow. “You’d rather sleep in that miserable coffin of yours than have to go through this heat.”

“Hasumi-kun knows me so well,” Rei coos. “Maybe I just wanted to see you.”

Under the umbrella, shadows envelope Rei’s body, bringing his red eyes and his pale skin and the lustre of his black curls into something like dull murmurs, but to Keito, he might as well have been glowing. The butterflies in Keito’s stomach knock against his ribs with their savage wingbeats and the flowers in his lungs greedily devour his yearning, rapidly sprouting up his throat and mouth like a bushfire. 

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Keito says as petals tempt to fall past his mouth and _that person_ –Rei, settles into a relaxed pace by his side as they stroll through the beach.

**\---**

  


Rei is a little touchy sometimes. Or maybe more than just a little.

When Rei ruffles the twins’ hair, a smile gracing his lips and eyes brimming with affection, Keito wishes that it was him. When Rei steals a sip of water from Kaoru’s water bottle, Keito wishes that Rei had asked him. When Rei rests his head against Adonis’ shoulder, Keito wishes that Rei was that comfortable with him.

Tuesday afternoon, lunch break, a pretty brunette with a shimmering gold in the pool of their eyes nervously asks Rei to accompany them to a more secluded area of the school. Keito watches through the dust-dripped lenses of his glasses, the daintily folded, washi tape and sticker-soaked envelope that is brought forward towards Rei.

Keito sees the way those crimson eyes drench themselves in thought, the way those pale pink lips quirk themselves up in amusement, the way his head is calmly tipped to the side. Those delicate fingers are brought forward, flesh just a breath away from paper and Keito cannot take anymore of this.

The flowers punch the prison bars of his teeth like curled fists so hard, his mouth parts and like air through a pin-pricked balloon, the flowers fall with a harsh splat against the ground. There’s panic around him, voices rising to a crescendo– _quick, call the ambulance–fuck, he has hanahaki? since when?–for who?–_ but Keito can’t do anything and simply let the flowers gush through, as painful as it may be, thorns against his throat.

_Red roses? Damn, he has it bad._

**\---**

  


At one point, Keito had blacked out. And when he rouses, his throat burns. He lurches, heaving himself up from the bed to cough and when he does, there’s already a basin put in front of him.

He remembers the confession, the afternoon summer sun polka-dotting alabaster skin beneath the shade of a tree, the look of contemplation–of consideration, lips parting open to offer a possible ‘yes’, a hand brought forward, palm faced upwards in acceptance of a letter. 

Keito coughs, and coughs, and coughs until red roses moist with his spit flow over the edges of the basin and onto his bed, until his throat feels numb, until his fingers tremble, until tears underscore his eyes.

“…Hasumi-kun?” A voice carefully says. And then Keito notices a set of familiar, slender fingers supporting the basin in front of him. He glances up and sees that person. _Rei._

Those red eyes–those lovely red eyes, normally dipped with lethargy, drown themselves in apprehension. Those pastel lips, curve downwards into a sorrowful arch and that voice–the typical lazy drag of syllables and the teasing slope in his tone is absent. There’s uncertainty in the way Rei moves, an overwhelming weight on his shoulders that renders him stiff on his seat.

Keito glares at Rei, eyebrows deeply furrowed and fists clenched into the silken sheets draped over his waist and thighs. He is the last person Keito wants to see.

After what seems like countless beats of silence, like a staccato, Rei raises his hand and brings it forward, hesitancy painfully obvious. Keito is not sure what Rei wants to do–until his fingertips lightly brush against Keito’s knuckles and Keito, shocked and appalled, flinches.

It doesn’t stop Rei from trying again–from once again, reaching for Keito and this time, successfully engulfing the bespectacled man’s icy fingers in his grip. Keito wants this man to leave–another wave of flowers feverishly climb his throat and Keito is a split second from turning his body away from Rei, not wanting the spit-soaked roses to fall anywhere near Rei, not wanting to think for the umpteenth time, that the colour matches Rei’s pretty eyes.

But the flowers never come. Rei’s hand offers Keito a reassuring squeeze and it’s the only warning Keito really gets before a pair of warm lips are pressed against his own. It’s a chaste kiss, brief and soft, laced with every ounce of affection Rei could possibly muster. And then it’s over–Rei leans away.

The clutch around his hand instinctively tightens. “I pride myself in being observant,” Rei says. “Though you are quite obvious, Hasumi-kun. The way you look at me says it all and yet–”

“You knew and yet you didn’t say anything?” Keito is in disbelief, staring at Rei with anger hot in his eyes. “Was it entertaining for you to see me like this? Did you–”

“I was frightened,” Rei looks down at their entwined hands, voice pulled down close to a whisper, “and also unsure. I know it was stupid of me, but I… I never knew you caught the hanahaki disease.”

“You probably think I’m pathetic,” says Keito, though he doesn’t make a move to release himself from Rei’s grip.

“I think,” Rei says slowly, “that if you are willing to forgive me, we can make this work. We can make ourselves happy.”

Frowning, a flush dusts itself across Keito’s cheeks and he faces away from Rei, glaring at the window. “You’re an idiot. Don’t think that I’ll forgive you that easily.”

Rei chuckles lightly.

“Hasumi-kun is blushing~” Rei leans closer a little, lips curled into a teasing smile.

“Shut up. It’s just too hot,” Keito grunts. 

This time, as sweaty as his hands might already be, it’s Keito who squeezes Rei’s hand. Indeed, summer is far too hot this time around.

  



End file.
